HEREABOUTS sandra baer
Some people can leave the farm and never look back, but Gregg Sparks of Sugarcreek Twp. always carried a flame for the farm way of life. Despite a successful military and business career, he has managed to incorporate farm values and a healthy outdoor lifestyle into his busy schedule.
“I grew up in a farm community where you could look out in the distance and see a grain elevator,” said Sparks, who started working on relatives’ farms bailing hay and walking beans, or pulling weeds in the bean field at the age of 10.
“We were out looking for a farm when we decided to move to Bellbrook. We didn’t find one, but we did find eight acres where we started Sparks Springs Farm. We have beef and turkey and a vegetable garden. We harvested 250 pounds of potatoes last year.”
Sparks grew up in rural Grand Ridge, Ill., where he was active in the Jr. ROTC program at Ottawa High School. After graduating in 1977, he attended the Citadel in Charleston, N.C., on a full scholarship. He met his wife, Lori, a fashion merchandise major at Western Illinois University, during the summer break between his junior and senior year of college. The couple had a long-distance relationship until 1981, when Sparks graduated with a degree in chemistry and physics from The Citadel and was commissioned as an officer in the Air Force. While at home, prior to being stationed in the military, the couple became engaged and wed in 1982.
Sparks’ first position in the USAF was in program management at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Subsequent positions took him to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base from 1985-88, Washington, D.C., where he worked at the Pentagon as a liaison officer with the Congress and in management training from 1988-90 and to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada where cross-trained as a maintenance officer from 1990-93. After attending professional military education training in Montgomery, Ala., for one year, Sparks returned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a colonel working in program management and logistics.
In 2001, he spent a year in Washington, D.C., in an office across the Potomac River from the Pentagon where he was watching televised reports about the World Trade Center bombing when he felt the windows rattle in his office as a result of the plane hitting the Pentagon.
“We asked one of our former neighbors from Beavercreek where we should live when we moved back,” said Sparks, whose neighbor was Alice Webb, an employee at Bellbrook Middle School. “She suggested Bellbrook, so we rented a house for a year until we bought our farm.”
Sparks was particularly interested in the school district, because of the couple’s two children, Collin and Molly. Collin graduated from Bellbrook High School and started his own landscaping business, Dig It Landscaping, while Molly is currently an ROTC student at the University of Kentucky where she is studying international studies and Chinese.
After retiring from the military in 2005, Sparks began working for Dayton Aerospace as a consultant and senior associate. During the years he has volunteered extensively as a Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader, a soccer coach and has been involved in church activities. He has served as president and vice-president of the Bellbrook Lions Club and chaired the Community Improvement Committee and the Helping Neighbors Program.
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.